Category: Sir Gallahad III

Marguerite, Mother of Champions

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

In her twenty-five years, Marguerite’s nine foals included more than one overachiever of the first half of the 20th century, including a Triple Crown winner and a Travers victor, her impact so great that she was buried intact, a high honor for a horse. Best known for her first foal by Sir Gallahad III, this daughter of Celt is not only the mother of Gallant Fox but also one of William Woodward’s favorite mares, a light chestnut recognized by Horse and Horseman magazine in 1939 as “America’s most eminent broodmare.”

Claiborne Through and Through

When Fairy Ray arrived in the United States, her new American owner Frederick Johnson thought she was a poor specimen of a broodmare. Yet her pedigree, laden with English classic winners, promised much, even if her looks left something to be desired. Johnson sold the mare and her yearling by Cock o’ the Walk at a dispersal sale, and, as luck would have it, Arthur B. Hancock, master of Claiborne Farm, came away with the daughter of Radium, twice winner of the Jockey Club Cup in England. Hancock bred Fairy Ray to Celt, one of Claiborne’s flagship stallions of the early 20th century.

Celt was one of those horses whose potential on the racetrack was never quite realized owing to circumstance and injury. He happened to be a stablemate of the undefeated Colin, himself rated alongside Man o’ War in the estimation of turf writers of the day. Though Celt could not prove himself in the same ways Colin had, injury preventing him from racing more than his scant six starts, he proved to be a much better sire than his stablemate. By 1919, he already had a Futurity winner in Dunboyne and a Coaching Club American Oaks winner in Polka Dot. The choice to breed him to Fairy Ray was a fortuitous one: the result was Marguerite.

Belair’s Beginnings

At the Saratoga yearling sales in 1921, William Woodward, master of Belair Stud, spotted Marguerite and purchased her for $4,700, adding her to his burgeoning broodmare band. Though Belair was an ample estate with plenty of land, Woodward kept his broodmares at Claiborne, so, when it was time for Marguerite to transition to that phase of her life, she returned to her place of birth and became one of his owner’s best producers, a foundational mare for this dynasty of the 1930s.

Her first cover was Wrack, the imported stallion who had won on the flat and over the jumps. The result was Petee-Wrack, 1928 Travers winner who later added the Suburban and Metropolitan Handicaps to his resume. In Sir Gallahad’s first season at stud, 1926, Woodward sent Marguerite to the newly imported stallion and produced a bay colt with a blaze and a precocity that gave his owner great hopes. That was Gallant Fox.

The Fox was the first of her seven foals by Sir Gallahad III, their pairing producing Flying Fox and Foxbrough, both stakes winners, as well as daughters like Marguery and Marigal, who also had stakes winners of their own. From Gallant Fox came Granville, Flares, and, of course, Omaha. Down the line from Omaha came Nijinsky II, the last of the English Triple Crown winners.

From Marguerite came a long list of winners, helping give rise to the Belair dynasty of the 1930s.

A Life of Consequence

Marguerite’s impact as a broodmare merited her inclusion in historian Edward Bowen’s book Matriarchs as well as a stakes race at Pimlico Race Course from 1945 to 1965. You can read more about her in The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown, coming soon from the University Press of Kentucky.

The Story Starts Here: Sir Gallahad III

Published on by Jennifer Kelly1 Comment
Sir Gallahad III

In December 1925, French stallion Sir Gallahad arrived in the United States carrying the hopes of the four men who had invested in his potential. In a deal initiated by Arthur B. Hancock, this son of Teddy joined the stallion roster at Claiborne Farm and began a two-decade stud career that made him a record breaker. From 1926 to 1949, Sir Gallahad III was a stallion who made a sizable impact on the sport, giving rise to at least one immortal and a long list of winners.

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Ajax, the Progenitor

Published on by Jennifer Kelly1 Comment

William Woodward’s two years in England had whetted his appetite for more. As a child, he had already set it in his mind that he would win the Epsom Derby one day, as Pierre Lorillard had in 1881 with his American-bred Iroquois. Woodward’s time in Britain, though, grew this idea into an obsession, the Harvard educated young man spending as much time researching pedigrees and race records as he did the law and other concerns. Back in the United States, he continued this passion, turning his Belair estate into a veritable equine heaven, but he needed the bloodstock to make his dreams a reality. To do that, he looked to a horse named Ajax.

French Connection

Edmond Blanc divided his time between politics and horses, parlaying his inheritance into a place as one of the France’s most successful breeders. He purchased English Triple Crown winner Flying Fox from the estate of the Duke of Westminster and brought the stallion to his Haras de Jardy. There, in his first crop, Flying Fox sired Ajax.

Ajax was a sensation on the racetrack, winning all five of his starts at age three, before an injury cut his career short. He retired with that perfect record to Haras de Jardy, his wins in the Prix de Jockey Club and the Grand Prix de Paris marking him as a sire to pursue. In addition to siring Teddy, who also became a champion on the racetrack and then in the breeding shed, Ajax sired a number of broodmares, including one named La Flambee. When World War I began, many breeders rushed to sell their horses, resulting in a number of importations from Europe to the United States. Blanc decided to sell several of his broodmares, news that caught the eye of William Woodward at Belair in Maryland.

American Successes

Woodward decided to buy five of those mares, all by Ajax. Woodward was still early in his breeding career, building his bloodstock holdings slowly, waiting for the right moment to break out. Through contacts, he purchased those fives mares by Ajax for a surprisingly low $3,750. One of those mares was La Flambee, who had been bred to Epsom Derby winner Durbar II while she waited to be shipped to the United States. Even though Woodward had purchased these mares in 1914, they did not arrive in America until 1919. By that time, La Flambee’s filly by Durbar II was a yearling that Woodward named La Flambette.

La Flambette won the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Latonia Oaks for Woodward, establishing herself as a leading filly of her generation before becoming a broodmare of note, producing horses like La France (dam of classic winner Johnstown), Gallette (dam of Gallorette, champion handicap mare), and Flambino, who won the Gazelle and finished third in both the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Belmont Stakes. For Woodward, Flambino would produce Fleam, Flares, and, of course, Omaha, 1935 Triple Crown winner. From that investment in five Ajax mares came many of Belair’s great runners.

Of course, Ajax had another connection to Belair. Earlier, I mentioned that he sired Teddy, who was a champion in Spain during World War I and then a notable sire for Jefferson Davis Cohn. Among the horses he sired was Sir Gallahad III, the stallion that a syndicate of breeders like Arthur Hancock and William Woodward purchased and brought to the United States in late 1925. Sir Gallahad would sire Gallant Fox, who would then sire Omaha, out of Flambino. Ajax’s blood ran deep in the Belair bloodstock, generations of horses that brought much success to their breeder and owner across the ocean from where it all began.

In his time, a horse named for a mythical hero helped establish one breeder’s fantastic success, bringing us horses that stand alongside the actual Ajax as pillars of equine greatness.